4 ESSENTIAL HABITS FOR ACHIEVING CONSISTENT BUSINESS RESULTS

Last week, I shared my process for quarterly reviews. The reason? Quarterly reviews are a habit I started as a CEO, and have continued over the past 14 years. This process of reviewing and planning is indispensable, providing a regular shape and rhythm to the way I run my business. But if you want consistent business results, reviewing and planning are not enough. For a business to evolve into a brand, your plan has to be implemented consistently on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

The truth is that regardless of your business experience and skills, given enough time, you can succeed at almost anything if you are consistent in your business habits and routines. The number one reason why incredibly talented and highly motivated people don't succeed in business is inconsistency. They start out all guns blazing, but their efforts fizzle and peter out long before they’ve built up any momentum.

The definition of commitment is doing the thing you said you were going to do, long after the mood you said it in has left you.” - Unknown

It’s stopping and starting that results in a lack of consistent business results. Continually stopping and starting means you never build up any momentum, especially when it comes to marketing your business.

Zig Ziglar used the analogy of a hand-pumped water well to illustrate what happens to your business results if you're inconsistent in your priority activities..

Imagine that the water table is 25 feet below ground with a pipe running down to it. To create the suction that brings the water out of the ground and out of the spout, you have to pump a lever. When most people start a new venture, they grab the lever and start pumping. Because you’re feeling excited and determined, you pump and pump and pump. But if you don’t see the results of all that pumping – water gushing from the pipe – you give up pumping the lever altogether. Dies this sound familiar?

If you persevere and continue to pump the lever, eventually a few drops of water will appear. At that point, a lot of people will give up – because all that pumping has yielded such meagre results. You haven’t seen the results you were expecting, and you quit. But the wise person knows that if they continue to pump, they will eventually be rewarded with a steady stream of running water.

Once the water is flowing, you won’t need to pump the lever so hard or so quickly. So long as you keep the water pressure steady by pumping the lever consistently, you will be rewarded with a constant flow of water. But if you let go of the lever for too long, the water will fall back into the ground and you’ll find yourself back at square one. The only way to get the water flowing is to pump the lever hard all over again.

It’s not how you start, it’s how you continue. If you are consistent, eventually you will build up enough momentum to make your brand visible and start to outpace the competition. Consistency is why the tortoise beats the hare every time.

Are you a hare or a tortoise in your own business?

Consistency will give you a competitive edge and will keep momentum on your side. More importantly, consistency will continually increase your confidence.” - Unknown

Which Habits Will Deliver Consistent Business Results?

This is the process I recommend you follow:

Identify your highest priority goals for the quarter, one of which is always revenue related. Depending on how complex they are, have between three and five goals.

Decide which activities, if practiced consistently, will best deliver your goals and transform your business results. Sometimes you won’t know whether an activity will deliver the desired results or not, especially when you're launching a new venture. If that's the case, treat these activities as a pilot and track and tweak them every week or so.

At the end of the week, review what you've recorded on your Weekly Achievements Tracker. Check for consistency. Did you do the activities you said you would? If not, why was this? Make course corrections and track your results next week..

The rhythm of daily action aligned with your goals creates the momentum that separates the dreamers from the super-achievers.” – Darren Hardy

Here’s an example of a Weekly Achievements Tracker for a coaching type business where the key goals are number of strategy sessions, number of offers made and number of new clients.

You can see from this small example that the person fell short of their goals, and completed 9 less actions that they had planned. A few misses might not seem much over the course of a week. But repeated over the course of a month, a quarter and a year, these misses soon start to add up. The lever of your sales and marketing water well is not pumped hard or consistently enough. It's this lack of consistency that stops you building momentum and leads to inconsistent business results.

[callout] Need more consistency in your business? Download this FREE Tracker here to help you to build and maintain momentum in your own business. [/callout]

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Question: Do you struggle with consistency in your business? I love reading your feedback so please do take a moment to share your experience in the comments box below.

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I’m Denyse Whillier, a London based business coach and consultant. I guide entrepreneurs from across the globe to achieve profitable, scaleable growth and create businesses that are Built To Succeed™. Built To Succeed™ is my proven success system, developed during my 8 years in the trenches as a CEO, 25 years’ experience at senior leadership and managerial level and training at Cranfield School of Management, the UK’s leading business school. It’s this background that sets me apart and helps my clients to get BIG results.